2011 Mazda 2 Touring: A Car for the Person I Used to Be

September 29, 2011

As a cub reporter for a big daily newspaper, I spent a lot of time driving to a wide variety of assignments. It could be anything from interviewing an accused murderer at Orange County Jail to a stroll through the coastal foothills with an expert in edible wild plants.

It was a job that called for a car that was nimble, reliable, easy to park and cheap to buy, gas and maintain. (Newspaper reporters always were underpaid. Now they're mostly just unemployed.)

If the Mazda 2 Touring had been on my radar then, I would have enjoyed its company. I'm a different kind of car owner now, and it doesn't suit me quite as well. Small size is less of a consideration. I want more creature comforts now. And my passion for a manual transmission is a sometimes thing. But if I could send a note back to the car owner I used to be, I might say: "Leave the Corolla. Take the Mazda."